China's Huawei Overcomes Opposition in India

In the U.S., Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei Technologies is encountering new opposition from Republican senators. Huawei has had its share of political problems in India, too, with New Delhi putting Huawei and Chinese rival ZTE on a blacklist earlier this year because security officials worried about the risk of Chinese infiltration. “The Indians are incredibly paranoid about China,” David Zweig, a professor of politics at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, told me at the time. (Read that story here.)

But the Chinese company is making progress in overcoming opposition in that market, with the Indian government easing up on its ban. On Monday, Indian operator Tata Teleservices said it is buying 3G equipment from Huawei. This comes just a few weeks after Huawei announced an earlier deal with the Indian operator to provide CDMA equipment in Mumbai.

Indian security concerns aren’t limited to Huawei and other Chinese companies, of course. Look at what RIM has had to go through in order to keep New Delhi from kicking the BlackBerry out of India. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-01/india-asks-rim-google-skype-to-set-up-local-servers-update1-.html Huawei’s breakthrough is probably a sign that the company made enough concessions to satisfy India’s security officials. It’s also a sign, though, that for all the rhetoric about the threat from China, Indian companies can’t afford not to do business with Chinese suppliers. As Insead professor (and sometimes Businessweek.com columnist) Anil Gupta told me a few months ago, Chinese equipment makers like Huawei enjoy a big price advantage over Western competitors. “We are talking about very competitive tech at 30% lower price; in a very capital intensive biz, that is important,” he said. As Indians look to spend to fix their woeful infrastructure, “India as market becomes the most attractive for capital goods from China. And because of China’s cost advantage, China becomes the most attractive supplier base.” For the two Asian giants, that co-dependence could help both countries put aside their past hostilities and work together.

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Delays Threaten India's Commonwealth Games

October’s New Delhi Commonwealth Games* were supposed to be for India what the 2008 Beijing Olympics were for China, the big sporting event showcasing the country’s arrival as an economic power. Instead, the Games are putting the spotlight on India’s worst problems, widespread corruption and poor infrastructure. Check out this story by my Bloomberg colleague, Subramaniam Sharma. “A day after the delayed opening of the weightlifting hall for New Delhi’s Commonwealth Games,” the story begins, “workers in white helmets climbed across its roof to fix leaks.” Subbu adds, “While state control in China ensured [Beijing] was ready for rehearsals, Delhi’s government-run efforts have been mired in delays, accusations of corruption and mismanagement.”

With more than a dozen other Commonwealth Games venues also behind schedule, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the weekend ordered an investigation. That begs the question of why Singh waited so long. The Commonwealth Games ain’t the Olympics, and as the Financial Times points out, several big-name athletes are giving it a pass. (Queen Elizabeth isn’t planning on showing up, either.) Still, this is a major event and I can’t see why Singh is stepping in only now, less than 50 days before the Games are scheduled to begin. Say what you will about the Chinese government, this kind of embarrassment wouldn’t happen in China.

* Originally I wrote the Games start in September, but opening day is October 3.

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China Has Foreign-Worker Problem, Too

While the U.S. and India squabble over H-1B and L-1 work visas for employees of Indian outsourcing companies, there’s a debate about foreign workers going on in China, too. Wait - China? The country with the world’s largest population and a bottomless pool of cheap labor? That China? Hard as it might be for Americans to believe, China has a growing illegal alien problem, too. According to Thursday’s South China Morning Post, officials in southern China’s Guangdong province are concerned about undocumented workers from neighboring countries. The SCMP cites the Nanfang Daily, the official newspaper of the Guangdong government, reporting that the province is about to impose new regulations on foreign workers. “With a huge workforce and strict immigration policies, the mainland is still closed to overseas labourers,” the SCMP reporter, Ivan Zhai, writes. However, local companies are looking for foreign workers thanks, in part, to higher costs associated with a new labor law that calls for better pay and benefits for Chinese workers. “More and more manufacturers are likely to employ illegal labourers from Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia. The reason is they that they will work for less pay and endure worse working conditions.”

For years, Guangdong officials have talked about the need to upgrade the local economy and shift away from reliance on low-wage labor. That’s happening, as companies like Foxconn (which manufactures for Apple and many others) are moving away from Guangdong. Foxconn is hiring as many as 300,000 workers at a new plant in central China. Not everybody can afford to pick up and move, though. For those companies stuck in Guangdong, hiring low-wage foreign workers is an attractive option, whether local officials like it or not.

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